Robert. I flew in cold weather down to -20 Celsius OAT. I experienced no problems so far with cold weather operations. Just take it easy when warming up the engine.
Make sure the carburetor heat flapper is really doing its job. If in doubt , you can take out the air filter segment and visually control its operation. As for freezing fuel lines, I doubt that this could happen. Unless you are having water in fuel, which is a no no, regardless of outside temperatures. The continental is a little more sensible to carburetor ice. That's why you need to apply carb heat when ever in doubt that ice is forming. Some people cover the hole above the air intake when the outside temperature is extreme low. That avoids the cooling of the induction system and gives also a higher oil temperature. Others might have better suggestions, but I found the good working carburetor heat essentiell in cold weather conditions. Hartmut ----- Original Message ----- From: robertbartunek To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 7:38 PM Subject: [ercoupe-tech] Cold weather operations I am about to go to central Iowa to pick up what looks like a fairly pristine Ercoupe, CD model. I have read about that Ercoupes exhibit some unexpected cold weather characteristics from time to time. Anybody have any insight on what these characteristics may be? I have heard that ice in the fuel lines may be a problem and the engine baffling has to be just right to avoid having a rough running engine. I have to fly it to Florida so it will be similar to Lindberg crossing the Atlantic, at least to me, and the first half of the trip is going to be very cold. I'd appreciate any insight on cold weather ops. Thanks. "See the USA, in your Air-coo-pay"
